Quote of the day—Upton Sinclair

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair
1935
I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked
[This observation applies to a great number of career paths but probably more so than any to those paid by organizations such as The Brady Campaign, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Every Town For Gun Safety, and The Violence Policy Center.—Joe]

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3 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Upton Sinclair

  1. Unfortunately, that description fits essentially all government employees.

    • My thought exactly. They have a tremendous investment in not understanding things, and not just a financial interest but overpowering emotional interests also. They want to think of themselves as “public servants” rather than predators or parasites, for one thing. They want some form of reverence, which is always a sign of insecurity.

      They want “respect” (which is the authoritarians’ term for fear or intimidation) and will often go apoplectic if they don’t get it. I’ve seen it go both ways though– They’ll either start frothing at the mouth in rage, or they’ll cower in fear and slink away, never to return, or the former followed by the latter once they see you’re not intimidated by the show of rage. It can be quite entertaining, in a twisted sort of way, but of course it is actually tragic.

      Some of the more intelligent ones will just act nice, and then avoid you in the future, but those seem to be rare. I once had a particularly retarded federal attorney up in Coeur d’Alene try to pull a ruse on me that would have cost me a few hundred dollars or so (just a petty little, emotionally-driven dig at me) but completely shut his pie hole and backed off once I called him on it. I had challenged him, in a perfectly professional and mild-mannered way mind you, in court one day, and that just put a burr under his saddle he couldn’t get rid of. Most of them are simply not accustomed to being questioned in a sincere and direct manner (sincerity and directness being high on their enemies list).

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